Compensation arrives for January storm damage

THE regional government will pay €1.4 million in compensation to Almeria growers following last January’s hailstorms.

El Ejido’s San Agustin area suffered the worst damage and the 27 beneficiaries of the payouts lost green houses that covered a total area of 31 hectares.

The payout came from a €4 million Junta de Andalucia fund set up to assist growers to resume normal production as soon as possible, said the regional government’s Almeria delegate for Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment, Jose Manuel Ortiz.

“We requested sufficient funds to ensure that nobody was left out and could count on help if necessary,” Ortiz explained.

The Junta initially calculated that 72 hectares of greenhouses were damaged at the beginning of the year, pointed out the Junta’s delegate Sonia Ferrer.  “Emergency estimates, as we saw later, are not always realistic, meaning that in cases like these we should proceed with caution,” Ferrer added.